Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 42, Lines 7-8

What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which kings and princes use for themselves.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Men hate to be "orphaned," "widowed," or "worthless,"
But this is how kings and lords describe themselves.

~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

What the people dislike
Are alone, bereft, and unworthy
But the rulers call themselves with these terms

~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Let's get to the practical part:
Men hate to be called
powerless, insignificant, or unworthy,
but that's how
Masters describe themselves.

~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
For me, what I think Lao Tzu is driving at is the selfless nature.

The sage has no ambition nor agenda. She is a person who does without doing. She flows with the currents of life and not against them. She attains much by not claiming anything solely unto herself. She is powerful, yet exerts no force.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

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